Tidbits

There is a principle which
is a bar against all information, which is proof against all
arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting
ignorance  that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
 Herbert Spencer

The theory of a free press
is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will
be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account.
 Walter Lippman

The Republican form of government
is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires
the highest type of human nature, a type nowhere at present existing. Herbert Spencer

To do evil a human being must
first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology
- that is what gives devildoing its long-sought justification
and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.
That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good
instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't
hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.  Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Beware the leader who bangs
the drums of war in order to whip the citizenryinto a patriotic
fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both
emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the
drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with
hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in
seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused
with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their
rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this
is what I have done. And I am Caesar.
 Anonymous, circa ?

Now I understood for the first
time that all these problems are caused by a race asleep and
thrashing about in its panicked nightmares. There will be wars
and holocausts and genocides as long as God is portrayed and
thought of as a tight-minded legislator, a feudal lord, an offended
King, a hypersensitive Artisan  even if church managers
condescendingly tack onto that ridiculous listthe not-very-convincing
footnote that He is also loving. As long as people dream that
they are insecure and needy in some sort of eternal jeopardy,
there will be atrocities. But as the human race grows up spiritually,
and as individuals gain a personal experience of the God they
have been worshipping in fear, they will recognize that much
of their theology and philosophy is built on nightmares. That
will be the day of peace. I suddenly found myself unwilling to
sit it out in the mountains of Utah. I wanted to play an active
role in the process of the worlds awakening.  George Fowler, "Dance of a Fallen Monk"